


peace and freedom

by Anonymous



Category: Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally
Genre: ...it’s literally just a Role Reversal bc i’m an uncreative asshole, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 02:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15379017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: “If you really are Gleb, do you think history wants you to have lived?”“Yes,” he says, as simple as the beginning of a revolution. “Why don’t you?”





	peace and freedom

**Author's Note:**

> This is a repost/rewrite from 2017, so if you feel as if you’ve read it before you probably did.

 

When her father comes home that night, and the world continues it’s steady breathing once more, she stares at his pistol and his shaking hands.

He shakes his head, he smells of whiskey. “Don’t ask.”

Her mother has never looked more ashamed.

The gunfire still rings in her ears and she is no longer a girl.

//

 “Together, we will build a new Russia, one that will be the envy of all the world.” She stands and smiles, shows all her teeth.

 She knows, even now, that she will never be a mother, her only love her country, but she will protect them all.

 A man, brown haired and rake-shaped, bows in mockery and she almost orders him killed.

 //

 “No!” She screams, collapsing.

 She thinks that’s what makes her him. It’s rare, to see an officer so afraid of gunfire.

 “It was a truck backfiring, Comrade,” he says, calming. He offers her a hand and she doesn’t take it.

 Still, he continues. “There’s a tea shop just along the road, let me -“

 “No, thank you,” she declines, politely. “I - I have a job to do. But thank you.”

 The New Order will do well with him, this hard working man who is making the most of his situation.

 She gives him a smile before she leaves.

 She doesn’t look to see him smiling back. 

//

 The traitors are putting all their hopes in fairy tale that let past Tsars cling to power, and she’d laugh if it weren’t so pathetic.

 “No one got away,” he tells her. Her hands shake and she thinks of her father. “I was only a boy, when it happened. I do not believe them.”

 She looks him in the eyes and feels like throwing up. She can see why the conmen believe this will work, how they will take the money from a woman who’s already lost so much. He looks exactly like their lost prince would have - might have.

 She sees him give her an encouraging smile as he half-runs out, and tries to calm herself. 

//

 When they give her the task of killing him, she does not refuse. “The conmen will not suspect a woman,” they promise. She will make her father proud, even as he lies cold. 

//

 

 _A ballet,_ she thinks, _how cliche._

 She watches the last Grand Duchess, so alone and so bitter, and almost feels pity.

 Almost.

 (“They have everything!” Herr father’s rants ring in her mind, clear as bells. “And give back nothing.” The people did not want the children to die. They were innocent. They were killed anyway.)

 She looks at the man in a borrowed suit and thinks she could love him if he were anyone else.

 //

 “If you really are Gleb, do you think history wants you to have lived?”

“Yes,” he says, as simple as the beginning of a revolution. “Why don’t you?”

 “They took everything, and gave back nothing, until we destroyed them.” She says, simply. The royals are truly as stupid as her father said. “They won’t let you live, you know. If you embrace this, they’ll find you.”

 “Do it,” he says. “I am my father’s son.”

 “And I am my father’s daughter!” She shouts back. She takes out the gun and aims. She will not miss. At least his death will be relatively painless. “Finish it, I must.”

 She is still not strong enough to shoot him and she can feel her father rolling in his grave. 


End file.
